


Hiraeth

by cannibitchbrat



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Vampire, M/M, Modern Era, Multi, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-02-16
Packaged: 2018-09-24 20:35:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9785051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cannibitchbrat/pseuds/cannibitchbrat
Summary: Vampires, Hunters and fun galore.Anders returns to Kirkwall after going cross country around Canada for a few years. Unusual friendships will give way to a lot of hijinx and danger.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Let this be known I have no idea what I'm doing.   
> If there's mistakes, please give me a shout seeing as I have no editor.

There was one disadvantage to night shifts, figuring out where all the 24/7 cafes and grocery stores where located in the general vicinity of the hospital where he currently worked and the curse that was a really crap sense of direction also made his life all the more hard.

Anders, 37, new head nurse at Kirkwall General Hospital, was run ragged and it had only been a few months since he had returned to the sad Canadian town of Kirkwall, New Brunswick. It did not help that it was the middle of winter and he hasn’t stopped in what feels like weeks because of the absolutely atrocious driving that seemed to happen around here. There seemed to be a full waiting room every night he was here, with different degrees of damage among the patients that really had him worried for his future here considering his minimal amount of sleep he was already achieving.

That night had been mostly filled with black-ice car crash victims, at least three in his immediate care, one heart attack survivor who was shovelling his drive way and strained himself far too hard fresh out of operation,  the usual sick child or seven, and the normal patients in his care.

A nine hour shift easily turned into a twelve hour shift without him really realizing, so when he was finally relieved of duty it was an hour or so until sunrise which honestly irritated him to no end, but easily sucked it up. He was a short bus ride and ten minute walk from home so it wouldn’t be too much of a problem. Though he honesty should start bringing a black umbrella or long sleeve shirts to work or something if this was going to be a reoccurring thing.

The sun and him didn’t really mix, after all.

Well, at least he’d be on the bus soon so he could hopefully avoid the sunrise, the bus stop was barren and freezing, his breath coming out in tiny little puffs of cloud every few moments. Pulling out his phone, he powered up the old thing and squinted through the cracked screen as it came to life. Two texts he instantly ignored from Justice were on the lock screen, which was bypassed with ease. Instead he pulled up a note-app and wrote in big letters ‘ **BRING UMBRELLA FOR LOCKER AT WORK. DON’T FORGET**.’

He’d more than likely forget anyway, it’s not like he went into notes for any important reason often.

Nibbling on his lip, his eyes travelled to the time, 6:32 showing up and he chanced a glance up and down the street. His bus was late.

A quick check to the transit website said that weather conditions have put the busses off the road.

Fantastic.

Shaking the snow off his coat from where he had sat on the bus-bench Anders finally managed to drag his disgusted glare from the screen of his phone and shoved it into his pocket. What was maybe a ten minute bus ride was going to turn into an hour walk for him now which defiantly ensured that he was going to get caught in the sun.

Shoving his hands into the deep pockets of his knee length black coat he began on his way through the dark streets of Lowtown, the district that had more low-income houses. It was still pretty nice in terms of houses, but you still had a chance of getting mugged which made his pace quicken slightly, since he was really not in the mood for that tonight, or, well, this morning.

 

* * *

 

 

Maybe four blocks to his house, which wasn’t even a house but a basement level apartment in Darktown, (the one part of town everyone avoided because it was a ‘bad part of the town’ as a whole) that was hardly big enough for him and his cat Pounce-the-third; he noticed that there was something amiss. A sort of tension in the air that was almost palatable which had him stopping and listening to his surroundings. A quick glance of his surroundings pinpointed exactly what he had felt. There was a scuffle going on in between two buildings, which no normal person would be able to tell it was happening.

Deathly tired as he was, Anders was also way too curious for his own good. Crossing the street carefully to make sure that he didn’t slip on ice or get run over by a car, he hopped onto the pavement and looked around expectantly, no one around, curtains drawn.

Being a mage as well as a creature of the night had its perks, mainly _shape shifting_.

And no, it was nothing like those silly monster movies where all his kind turn into bats, he could do something far more cool; become a cat, which coincidently is what he did, a little orange tabby that looked almost identical to Pounce-the-third.  It made investigating things like this a breeze and he didn’t get uncomfortable in the sun like when he was normal-looking. And seeing as said sun was already coming up it was a win-win.

Slowly peeking his head between the buildings he slowly inched into the alley-way hearing multiple voices a little ways off. As he inched further and further into the darkness it became clear what was happening.

Monster Hunters.

When Anders finally came upon the scene it was not pretty, not at all.

Emaciated Vampire and its prey which happened to be a stray dog, with two hunters on it like white on rice. One was a dwarf with a rather impressive crossbow pointed at the Vampire, sprouting off questions at it like he was having a good conversation with an old friend. The other, was a small, toned elf with odd markings and white hair. Even from this far away he was fairly sure that the elf was younger then he was physically, but he wanted to get a little closer to be sure.

That would be the moment that the dwarf finally sighed, waved his hand and the elf stepped forwards and did something he wasn’t expecting. Pulled some sort of cord or wire out of his pocket and wrapped it firmly around the writhing Vampires neck before aggressively tugging at it and with a strength he hadn’t seen displayed in an elf before tore through the whole entire neck and severed the head from the body like it was nothing.

Well.

Time to go.

Hackles raised, he turned and prepared to flee, but before he could get anywhere two big hands wrapped around his middle and lifted him right off the ground and against a warm, absolutely huge chest. A quick glance up confirmed that he hadn’t seen this human, nor heard him which was a feat in itself. The man holding him had dark brown hair and the most luscious beard Anders has ever seen. His eyes were so kind that Anders almost instantly calmed down, but let it be known that he was irritated with the quick thumping of his tail against the man’s side.

“You two done?” The human man asked with a grin, and stepped closer to the gore, making Anders very uncomfortable. Though he did not squirm in the hold as he was not in the habit of upsetting the obvious hunter holding him.

“As done as we could be, it didn’t give us anything of consequence. Actually not much at all except snarling and making a fool of itself. Had Fenris just end it so it wouldn’t hurt anything or _anyone else_ , so we’re no closer than before, regretfully.” The dwarf replied, and Anders was instantly fond of the way he spoke. Soft and soothing.

Fenris, as the other hunter was called simply made a noise of disgust as he pulled the head, and body into the first rays of morning light, the body bubbling and turning to dust when the rays caught its skin. Very uneasy, he made a noise of protest at the human which only got a hand on his head, ruffling the hair between his ears. And two sets of eyes on him.

“Hawke.” The elf- Fenris –said in a deep voice that honestly surprised him. “ _What_ is that?”

“Come on Fenris, I know you’ve seen a cat before. It was just wandering around and since strays are used as blood-bags I thought...”

“ _No_.”

A chuckle from the dwarf.

“Well it’s a good thing I don’t need permission because we’re taking her to the safe-house! Isn’t that right Miss Mittens?”

Well, Anders was about as exasperated as Fenris looked. But purred none the less at whatever this man- Hawke -was saying to seem complacent with such an odd idea when honestly he’d rather scratch and go.

The conversation was going to be lost to him however as Hawke, with a careful gesture opened up his jacket and stuffed Anders inside without another word of warning, probably thinking he was cold because of the frozen skin he naturally had.

Wherever this safe house was it had to be on his block because not even five minutes later Hawke was stepping through the threshold of someplace warm and after going up a flight of stairs opened his jacket to let Anders out into a slightly shabby looking apartment living room. After a brief scratch under his chin, Hawke filled up a bowl of water and then wandered away to ‘have a long-ass shower’ as he put it.

Dwarf and Elf not in sight, probably gone to their respected hidey holes Anders puffed up slightly and stepped over to the first window he saw that didn’t look alarmed. He was pretty sure he had to get the hell out of here or he was going to be pretty fucked when they realized he wasn’t a real cat, whenever that was. He didn’t want to stick around to find out. A quick transformation, cat-Human-cat and he’d be out of here, he can manage that.

Shifting out of this form, his teeth found his lip as he slid the latch open on the window, tugging it silently open inch by inch so he smaller form could get out.

Anders was slammed into the wall face-first by a hand in his strawberry blonde hair before he could do much else, his vision blurring and nose throbbing slightly. He hadn’t even heard anyone enter the room- again! –he was getting far too old for this shit.

“Who are you? How did you get in here?” Seethed a familiarly deep voice from the elf, Fenris, in his ear, something sharp prodding at the back of his spine which he was acutely aware was probably silver.

Well, that didn’t work like he wanted it to.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter literally came out of nowhere, I never updated this fast in my life.

Tailing a pack of rabid vampires for all of two weeks is not something that was particularly enjoyable, satisfying sure, but not enjoyable, not really. Things like this got tiring very quickly, and among the group he worked with- The Hawkes and Varric mostly, things also got tense. They were pretty worn thin as it was, what with half their group away doing other things, or on other important hunts.

Sometimes Fenris believed that Varric was the only sane person in the safe house in general, which wouldn’t be far from the truth what with Marian’s spontaneous need to loot and horde everything she comes across and Garrett’s equally annoying trait of wanting to pick up every stray animal he saw.

Honestly he’s just wanting this job to be over so they can go back to their much nicer home-base in the upper class Hightown but they can’t do that until they take this pack’s leader down.

Which coincidently was what Fenris was attempting to do, tailing the dishevelled man who looked like he had forgotten to eat for a good week straight in the dark of the night, keeping just far enough away that the vampire’s senses wouldn’t alert him that he was there, yet close enough so that Fenris could spring into action if need be. Varric was somewhere nearby watching, his crossbow at the ready just in case this was some sort of trap.

Not that rabid vampires were smart enough for that. Though it never hurts to be cautious.

They did need information although, which was the other reason he was following and not just killing this thing. Through the back alleys of Darktown, between the houses and through back yards. Not many people would be getting ready to do anything, seeing as its shaping up to be a snow day and the roads look like shit, so no ones getting up to go to work. Especially not in this shit town.

The Leader ducked between two large apartment complexes, and Fenris was aware that the stalking was over when he followed only to find the creature half crouched over what looked like a stray dog, happily gnawing through flesh to get to the warm blood underneath.

At least it wasn’t a person, even though he was vividly aware that this little pack had killed a few people.

A glint from the other end of the alley told him Varric was coming to start the interrogation, so he finally left his safe distance and stalked towards the creature, which tensed abruptly, a gurgling snarling noise bubbling out of its mouth as Fenris with all the grace an elven hunter could possess grabbed the back of the filthy coat on the creature and pulled it away from the dog and before it could get it’s baring shoved it into the siding of the building, a silver knife resting between its ribs, which didn’t stop its incessant gargling.

“Good catch, elf.” Varric hummed, as he approached. Bianca trained right between the things eyes just for a little more incentive. “So, let’s have a talk.”

A talk consisted of mostly the same things each time. A very intense Q and A about whereabouts, how many they killed, how many they changed, if there were other vampires near-by, if there were any other groups, et cetera. Fenris mostly stayed out of it, Varric was the one with the eloquent and easy going nature which made talking to these things a lot easier for him. Fenris was more brawn of these operations, and he enjoyed it a lot more then cooing at the dangerous creatures.

Tonight didn’t seem to be yielding any results, the creature wasn’t even hearing Varric’s words, simply snarling and acting like a wild animal.

With a sigh from Varric, Fenris knew it was over; they wouldn’t stay here all night with this thing. Putting Bianca on his shoulder, Varric waved his hand at him and took a few calculated steps backwards to stay out of blood splatter range. Keeping the knife at the throat of the beast Fenris used his other hand to dig in his coat pocket to find a silver specially crafted wire with two hand grips on either end. There was a split second where the thing could see what was going to happen but Fenris gave it no time to react, his knife was dropped and the wire was expertly wrapped around it’s throat and without much force at all he pulled and the head was severed from the body with a squirt of blood and the dying yell of the creature.

Kneeling next to it, Fenris cleaned off his wire on its coat before putting it back in his pocket, then slid the dropped knife into its holder on his belt.

“You two done?” Came a cheerful voice from behind them,  which made Fenris grunt in confirmation as Varric began to tell Garrett about how they got nothing from this thing, obviously. He instead took to busying himself with dragging both pieces of the body out into the sun so that it could fry and it did once the first rays of the morning hit it, bursting into a fine dust that would be untraceable. Blood included.

Wiping his hands off on his pants he turned and walked back over to the group where his eyes instantly settled on Garrett’s chest, more specifically, what was huddled against it and melwing unhappily.

Ugh.

“Hawke. _What_ is that?”

“Come on Fenris, I know you’ve seen a cat before. It was just wandering around and since strays are used as blood-bags I thought...”

“ _No_.”

A chuckle from the very unhelpful Varric did nothing to calm his nerves.

“Well it’s a good thing I don’t need permission because we’re taking her to the safe-house! Isn’t that right Miss Mittens?”

He’s not even going to argue with this man, there is no point because he literally will not win, so instead of doing that he’ll throw a very irritated expression his way and stalk past so that they could get back to their safe-house.

 

* * *

 

 

Inside was freezing, which instantly meant that Marian had gone off somewhere on her own and not stuck around like she said she would, which in all honesty was for the best so he didn’t have to listen to two idiots cooing over some stray that was probably fine on the street then in this two bedroom overpriced disgrace of a home.

Fenris had the couch that night, so he figured he should get into the bathroom before Hawke hogged it and took a frankly embarrassingly long hot shower like he did after every hunt because it ‘relaxed him’ or something like that.

Taking his time with a cloth and some water he wiped the blood off his face and neck, before there was a pounding on the door and he rolled his eyes and allowed Garrett inside so he could begin his ritual, the big bear-like man did take out the rest of the little misfit pack so he supposed he deserved it, though he would never say so to his face. As he exited the bathroom he was greeted with the sight of Garrett pulling off his shirt and a flirty wink before Fenris slammed the door behind him with a huff.

Thinking maybe it was a good idea to go grab some blankets from the room he was staying in before, he turned to head down the hall so he could before stopping in his tracks.

There was a familiar pinprick of magic dusting across his markings and making the hair on the back of his neck stand up only because he was aware easily that it was not the destructive kind that Garrett had.

Feather light bare feet creeped towards the living room where Fenris was greeted with the sight of a man –already inside-  carefully trying to opening the window. He was tall, far taller than Fenris, with blonde hair that reached his shoulders easily and was wearing a pair of scrubs. The cat wasn’t a cat.

Fuck.

Darting across the room, his fingers curled into his hair and he slammed his face into the wall beside the window, his other hand easily sliding his knife out of his belt and pressing the metal to his back at an angle where he could easily slip it between his ribs if he ever so chose.

“Who are you?” Fenris hissed, right in this man’s ear. Then as an afterthought, “How did you get in here?”

There was a momentary pause where all the blonde man did was groan softly, but he smartly did not struggle.

“Did you have to slam my face into a wall? Maker that smarts.. Ugh, I’m just an unexpectant mage that your friend took home in his jacket when I then realized I was truly fucked and shouldn’t have gone into an alley way in the early hours of the morning as a cat- ow, _ow_ stop pulling my hair!”

Alright he was right then. This was the cat that Hawke had picked up earlier. Just a shape shifter who got caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, that didn’t excuse this foolishness, although, and honestly Fernis was readily about to subdue and maybe kill this trespassing filth- but he felt the hair in his fingers melt away to nothing and before he could react the man was a cat once more and scrambling out the three story window and jumping out without a care in the world.

Hissing a swear between his teeth he pushed open the window and leant over the edge to watch the little bastard jump out of a snow drift and leg it across the street and dart between some busted down buildings.

Oh he was _pissed_.

Slamming the window, he locked it and turned around to stalk down the hall and to Varric’s room.

They were going to find this man if it was the last thing he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ay, if you got any suggestions for later chapters throw them at me!  
> Hope ya'll enjoy 8)

**Author's Note:**

> Whoo, if you couldn't already tell this is really self indulgent.   
> Throw me a comment if you want more, or want to give me suggestions for another chapter, I'd be grateful.   
> There's no real set date for updates though so just bare with me.


End file.
